Statistics of Pain Intensity and Pain Unpleasantness - Paper Example

Pair 2 Cold pressor Threshold (s), first cycle - Cold pressor Threshold (s), second cycle 3.68142 -1.293 27 .207

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Pair 3 Cold pressor Tolerance (s), first cycle - Cold pressor Tolerance(s), second cycle 10.73349 -.598 27 .555

Pair 4 Cold pressor Intensity rating (cm), first cycle - Cold pressor Intensity rating (cm), second cycle .23835 -1.419 27 .167

Pair 5 Cold pressor unpleasantness rating (cm), first cycle - Cold pressor unpleasantness rating (cm), second cycle 1.07481 .365 27 .718

There are no clear and precise mechanisms which explain these differences. One of the explanations is that the motivation to tolerate pain for men is higher. Their motivation to suppress and, not show pain is higher and, this could be attributed to their masculine sex role. The reason why pain is relatively higher in females is because the feminine sex roles advocates for the expression of pain. This leads to reduced levels of motivation in the toleration of pain when it comes to women. Pain tolerance evoked by the cold pressor test, is increased during the follicular phase in normal menstruating women. This menstrual phase difference seems to be dependent on the serum concentration of estrogen as far as possible that this hormone level is high in follicular phase. Successive measurements of estrogens and progesterone are necessary in order to determine the role of sex hormones in women's pain perception

Cold Pressor Tolerance

This study found significant differences in pain tolerance responses to pain. The standard deviation was at 56.8233 while the error mean was at 10.7386. There is a decrease in the tolerance to deep pain. There is so much literature on differential systems of the perception to pain. There are various divisions of pain, some of which include; fast and slow pain, superficial and deep pain, epicritic and protopathic pain, somatic and visceral pain among others. If there are opposite changes with aging in two diverse systems of perception to pain, it is easy and possible for more efficient and effective analgesia to be developed through the use of these differences.

Paired Samples Statistics

Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

Pair 1 Pressure Pain Threshold (Kpa), first cycle 631.5714 28 249.40127 47.13241

Pressure Pain Threshold (Kpa), second cycle 571.2857 28 186.65711 35.27488

Pair 2 Cold pressor Threshold (s), first cycle 17.0882 28 7.01242 1.32522

Cold pressor Threshold (s), second cycle 23.3582 28 27.10216 5.12183

Pair 3 Cold pressor Tolerance (s), first cycle 48.0207 28 42.46105 8.02438

Cold pressor Tolerance(s), second cycle 52.4407 28 56.82337 10.73861

Pair 4 Cold pressor Intensity rating (cm), first cycle 6.0732 28 1.75196 .33109

Cold pressor Intensity rating (cm), second cycle 6.6071 28 1.72561 .32611

Pair 5 Cold pressor unpleasantness rating (cm), first cycle 6.5946 28 1.93277 .36526

Cold pressor unpleasantness rating (cm), second cycle 6.4321 28 1.77739 .33590

There are also other reasons which explain the low pain threshold and pain tolerance among women. Some of these reasons include; hormonal issues, differences and variations that exist in pain modulator systems together with other genetic reasons. However, looking at it from a psychosocial perspective, additional reasons for gender differences in reaction to pain is due to social role expectancies. The various pain perceptions could account for the gender difference in pulse reactivity. Another reason could be due to hormonal variations (however, hormonal differences do not account for much difference)

Pain intensity and pain unpleasantness

The correlation intensity and unpleasantness is at 0.198 and 0.313. Pain intensity and pain unpleasantness were selected as outcome measures. This could be attributed to the fact that the nervous system is heavily affected by sec hormones and the concentration of plasma keeps changing on a constant basis when it comes to both men and women. In women, the level of hormones keeps changing during their menstrual cycle, when they are expectant or in their pregnancy or after they reach at their menopause. All these factors have main consequences in regards to the perception of pain. Some studies have shown that there is a relationship between strong levels of estrogen and perception of experimental heat pain. Elevated levels of estrogen are usually associated with reduced threshold of heat tolerance and heat pain. In women, the pain modulator system indicates that there are variations in menstruation whose impact are felt more in the ovulatory phase of cycle when compared to the menstrual phase and the luteal phase. When it comes to men, even though there is a considerable reduction in the levels of testosterone with increase in age, they appear to be much less susceptible to changes in the levels of sex hormones in their whole lifespan.

Paired Samples Correlations

N Correlation Sig.

Pair 1 Pressure Pain Threshold (Kpa), first cycle & Pressure Pain Threshold (Kpa), second cycle 28 .813 .000

Pair 2 Cold pressor Threshold (s), first cycle & Cold pressor Threshold (s), second cycle 28 .329 .087

Pair 3 Cold pressor Tolerance (s), first cycle & Cold pressor Tolerance(s), second cycle 28 .726 .000

Pair 4 Cold pressor Intensity rating (cm), first cycle & Cold pressor Intensity rating (cm), second cycle 28 .344 .073

Pair 5 Cold pressor unpleasantness rating (cm), first cycle & Cold pressor unpleasantness rating (cm), second cycle 28 .198 .313

There is also a higher tendency of lower pain unpleasantness in males when compared to females. However, the results were not statistically significant. The same results were not reported for pain intensity. Males reported lower levels of intensity when compared to women. In addition to that, more ANOVA analysis showed that the pain threshold of UK men was greater in the second cycle. This could be attributed to the activation of endogenous pain inhibitory mechanisms. It is important to note that

Another observation that was noted is that the relationship between the pulse reactivity and the sensitivity to pain, as shown by the pain threshold and, the pain tolerance, is inverse in nature. Pain is a very complex, intricate and subjective experience. Studies have shown that there might be gender differences in the neural mechanisms which are responsible for the mediation of pain perception.

The effect and repercussions of sex hormones represents an important and crucial source of pain-related variability. This impacts and affects men and women in different and varying levels. This could be attributed to the distribution of sex hormones and their receptors in areas of the peripheral and central nervous systems which are associated with nociceptive transmission. In as much as the impact of oestradial and progesterone on the sensitivity of pain is intricate (the two exert pro-nociceptive and anti-nociceptive impact on pain), testosterone is more anti-nociceptive and protective in nature, especially since there is an association and link between decreased androgen concentrations and chronic pain.

There are many other factors which could be the reason for gender differences in pain perception. Some of these reasons include; the ethnicity and race of a particular person, exogenous pain modulation, endogenous pain modulation, social role expectations, harrowing and bitter painful experiences, cognitive reasons, and behaviors related to pain, catastrophizing and other affective parameters. In conclusion, the results of the study indicate that the sex and gender of a person play a very crucial role in the response to pain and, females are more sensitive to pain when compared to males. Epidemiological and clinical findings indicate that women do experience more severe clinical pain. All studies that have been carried out on experimental induced pain have all indicated that there is a recurrent pattern of results, females show greater and bigger pain sensitivity, have higher enhanced pain facilitation and lowered pain inhibition when compared to males. There are sex differences in response to pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments to pain. There exist gender biases in the treatment of pain as well.

Conclusion

The level and amounts of adipose tissues are involved in pain responses. However, weight and BMI parameters are not correlated with pain responses.

Group Statistics

Sex N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

Age (yeas) male 13 20.9231 .95407 .26461

female 15 21.6667 2.22539 .57459

Weight (kg) male 13 73.8077 15.62522 4.33366

female 15 62.6667 8.49930 2.19451

Height (m) male 13 1.7375 .06871 .01906

female 15 1.6069 .04982 .01286

Body Mass Index male 13 24.3200 4.07415 1.12997

female 15 24.2654 3.06206 .79062

This can be attributed to the fact weight and BMI are not accurate and precise measurements of adipose tissue content in people who are healthy people especially if the variations in the size of the bodies are not that big. The results have also indicated that the size of body, and mostly the height, partly provides an explanation as to why there are differences in cold pressor pain between males and females. Women have increased pain sensitivity and, this is because of small body sizes together with shorter afferent pathways. Just like in the current study, taller women have a higher tendency and affiliation towards higher pain thresholds and tolerance measurements. In addition to that, gender is a factor that impacts and, has an implication on the linearity of the tolerance to pain among women and men. Older people are more sensitive to pain when compared to younger people. In conclusion, women have a higher pain sensitivity response to cold pressor pain when compared to men. Other biological factors, for example, height and size, and other psychosocial reasons, for example, anxiety, do determine the sex and gender differences with regards to pain.